Poland in mourning
There are only two exceptions. On April 11th, i.e. on Sunday, the World U-18 Hockey Championship (Division 1) began in Krynica-Zdrój. Also on Sunday, in Krosno, the national junior women’s volleyball team will complete its performance at the qualification tournament for the European Championship.
The President, his wife, as well as the politicians, clergymen, war veterans and representatives of Katyń Families who were on board of the government Tu-154M airplane were on their way to take part in the commemoration of the 70th anniversary of the Katyń massacre. The plane crashed at 8.56 during approach in difficult weather conditions, a few hundred metres away from the runway of the Severnyi military airport.
The victims included people associated with sports.
Piotr Nurowski, the eleventh president of the National Olympic Committee of Poland, joined the state delegation to Smolensk to take part in the commemoration of the victims of the Katyń massacre, where Stalin’s murderers killed 263 athletes and sport activists, including eight Olympic athletes.
Between 1973 and 1980, Piotr Nurowski was president of the Polish Athletics Federation. When elected, he was 28 and was the world’s youngest president of a national sports federation at that time.
After a period of activity in the youth movement, he joined the staff of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. He was first secretary of the Polish embassy in Moscow until 1984; next, he worked for two years at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs before serving as counsellor of the embassy in Rabat, Morocco between 1986 and 1991.
In 1992, Piotr Nurowski worked on the creation and development of the Polsat satellite TV station. He was a sports fan all his life. While still in high school in Sandomierz, he was a speaker at the local stadium; upon graduating from university, he won the Polish Radio’s contest for the sports commentator of the year.
In 2005, he became president of the National Olympic Committee of Poland. In 2009, he was elected for another four-year term.
Athletes, sports officials and sports fans will remember Piotr Nurowski as a man passionate about sport and an effective manager. In 2010, he was re-elected as member of the Executive Committee of the European Olympic Committees and was entrusted for the second time with the role of chairman of the Communication Commission.
Piotr Nurowski was 64 years old.
Father Józef Joniec, Piarist, held many responsible posts, including that of chaplain of children and youth, parish priest, custodian of the Sanctuary of Mother of God and Teacher of Youth, rector of the Piarist Order College in Warsaw and director of the Parafiada Centre and the Stanisław Konarski Piarist Educational Centre.
Most notably, father Józef Joniec was the founder of the Parafiada (Parish-lympic) Programme (1988), which combines three elements: sport, culture and religion. Thanks to him, the Parafiada movement has become an important component of the educational process in our country and has spread to many other European countries, particularly east of Poland. He was the founder and organizer of the annual International Parafiada Games for Children and Youth, in which over three thousand children and youths, teachers, pedagogues, clergymen, parents and volunteers participated each year.
Father Józef Joniec was a humble and very hard-working priest who gave every day of his life to fulfilling the Order’s mission by serving children and youth and tending to their harmonious physical, cultural and religious development.
A spiritual guide of great virtue, a man with a big heart and of exceptional wisdom has been gathered to his Father. The Church, the Piarist Order, Polish sport and, most importantly, children and youth, have all suffered a huge loss. We lost an exceptional person, a passionate priest, great community worker and a friend.
Józef Joniec was 51 years old.